Should we have no religion or all religions in school?

A religious NGO, known as Organisasie vir Godsdienste-Onderrig en Demokrasie (OGOD/Organisation for Religious Teaching and Democracy), is currently seeking a court order against the department of basic education and public schools to prevent religious observances during school hours. The case dates back to 2014, where the organisation took to court two ministers and six public schools for advertising themselves as exclusively Christian.

While private institutions of learning are allowed to establish an exclusive religious ethos at their own expense, the South African National Policy on Education and Religion (SANPER) prohibits public schools from doing the same. According to SANPER, South Africa consists of a very diverse body, so “…no particular religious ethos should be dominant over and suppress others” and all religions are to be recognised and respected equally. This policy also stipulates that no public schools are allowed to discriminate or violate a student’s or teacher’s religious freedom by imposing adherence to one religion “… on a religiously diverse school population.”

I attended a former Model C public school that had a Christian ethos. Monday morning assemblies were compulsory for everyone, and we read scriptures and sang hymns. I spoke to Sylvester Maqanda (31) a security guard from Soweto (who is an atheist) and he had a similar schooling experience to mine. Christianity was the only accepted religion at his primary school.

“If schools cannot accommodate more than one religion then we should take out religion in our education system; it should be gone. With today’s constitutional law, everyone is allowed to choose what they want and which religion to affiliate themselves with. To me, this court case shows that South Africa does not consider other religions and that we should find ways of considering them or abolish religion from the [education] system.”

Zama Nqulunga, a 23-year-old quantity surveyor from Alexandra also learned about Christianity throughout her school career. However, Nquluna says she sees no problem with this. Nqulunga is a Christian and grew up in a Christian household.

“Maybe because I was never at a disadvantage with the focus on one religion, but I see no problem in schools focusing on one religion. Not that I’m saying it should stay that way, I also think the department of education should find means of incorporating different religious views in the [education] system, because religion is still important to people. Getting rid of it can never be a solution.”

Thabang Kubjana, a 27-year-old auditor from Pretoria, went to a Catholic high school. Kubjana isn’t Catholic, but she said she had no choice but to conform to the Catholic ethos during her school years. It didn’t bother her though. She felt schools enforced religion on pupils and called for schools to rather not touch on religion because it’s quite broad and sensitive.

“Schools have this thing of forcing kids into accepting a certain religion. I don’t think it is right for schools to focus on one religion, because diversity. Instead, I think it’s better for schools to change their policies on religion and not focus or preach about any because [religion] is a broad and sensitive topic. This is what the court case between the NGO and the education system says to me.”

Although my religious beliefs are more aligned towards Christianity, I do strongly feel that, because of our diverse population, finding means of ensuring that every religious group is equally represented or taught at schools is quite a reach. This court case is already an indication of how difficult it will be in finding solutions to fair and equal representation in religious education.

Many South Africans have come through a schooling system that gave precedence to Christianity of one form or the other. Given the diversity of the South African population, would it be best to remove religious observances from the education system?

Belief systems are important to everyone and for everyone and are an essential part of growing up, or learning , or education. Without abusing the term faith, faith is essential for learning, for example there are still many, many who have not yet seen the sea, or have been to the sea, so any learning for them about the sea must be purely based on faith.
One definition of faith is the belief in things that are not seen but which are true. While there are many who say they have no religion, they may even call themselves atheists, even these have a faith system, one can correctly say, faith can mean a belief in God or a belief in No-God.
Belief systems are important the the development of belief systems in a person enhances or betters that persons experience of life.
Assembly time is when the school gathers together, everyone, to receive general instructions for the day, to perhaps honour or recognize excellent performance and other common objectives, it is part of bringing order into the lives of those who until assembly time have not ordered their lives. Education thrives where there is order and structure. To deny students this advantage would be wrong, however to compel someone who brings order into their lives by practising YOGA, is not necessarily correct.
One of the most important point which is overlooked by so many, is that you cannot force someone to believe, a person chooses to believe or not to believe, so if someone is compelled to take Maths ( or one of its derivatives), is as wrong as to compel someone to attend a particular ‘style’ of Assembly.
Most (all) countries practice ‘mass’ education, where the likes and dislikes of an individual are suppressed in favour of the community good. We all need to suppress our likes and dislikes for the unity of society. Irrespective of what you think or what you like to do, in this country (South Africa) you drive on the right hand side of the road. So what do you do if your beliefs are not in conformity with the current practice of the school. You find those in the school who believe or (not believe) as you do, and approach the school with an alternative plan for you to grow in your beliefs, to force students to not believe or to not improve their beliefs is as bad as forcing students to believe.
No the practice must stay, and if both sides have to struggle to learn how to live with each other, that is more than good, for we are living in an ever shrinking world.